Norwich courts medical marijuana facility for city

Monday

Nov 18, 2013 at 10:33 PMNov 18, 2013 at 10:33 PM

By Adam Bensonabenson@norwichbulletin.com (860) 908-7004

NORWICH — Two competing entities are vying for state approval to construct a medical marijuana production facility in the Norwich business park — a move that Mayor Peter Nystrom and other top city economic development officials are embracing.

Bloomfield-based Nascent Sciences and David Kimmel of Montebello, N.Y. have applied for one of a handful of production licenses expected to be approved by state regulators in the coming months.

Both applicants want to open in the former Decorative Screen Printers building at 9 Wisconsin Ave.

In one of his final public acts as mayor, Nystrom said getting behind the program could put the city into an elite position.

“I feel Norwich will benefit from being a leader in a new and expanding industry that can help so many,” Nystrom said. “The issue of whether it’s legal or not, they addressed it. Licenses are going to be granted and if it’s going to bring revenue and jobs, there’s no reason we shouldn’t support it.”

In May 2012, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law House Bill 5389, which authorized the use of medical marijuana for specific medical conditions, but limited the number of producers to between 3 and 10.

In documents released publicly on Monday, Nystrom revealed that four separate proposals for production facilities arrived at his City Hall office, and two ended up moving forward with the application process.

Nystrom said the city’s strong police force and the ability of Norwich Public Utilities to handle the infrastructure needs for marijuana producers make the city a strong candidate.

“We have the best position in the state in my opinion to be able to safely help with this new industry … Uninterrupted power is a necessity for this type of plant, and we are able to respond in a very timely manner in power outages,” he said. “In addition to NPU and because of our actions in the past few years, our police force is at or near full staffing and they will be able to aid in this manner.”

According to at least one estimate provided by Nystrom, such an operation could bring more than a million dollars in revenues from new utility sales.

Jason Vincent, vice president of Norwich Community Development Corp., echoed Nystrom.

“We’re very hopeful Norwich can position itself to be on the front end of the curve,” he said.